It’s All About the Plot – II
Last week I said I’d explain how I go about plotting a story. Let me remind you that this is MY approach, and it may or may not fit your writing style.
My plots usually start with a “what if” idea. For example, the big idea for Blood and Bone came from a news story I was working on about a bone marrow donation program. I thought, “what if” someone needed a transplant and the only possible donor was missing? My detective Hannibal would have to find the missing person.
So I have an idea of where the plot starts. Hannibal needs to find a missing person. And I know where it ends. Hannibal will find the missing person in time and save the day.
Now you may not have noticed, but I just gave you the outline of a story.
Hannibal is asked to find a missing person =è Hannibal finds him and saves the day.
If I was writing something simpler, say, a fairy tale, the outline might be:
Hansel and Gretel get lost=èHansel and Gretel get home.
This is the basic outline and from here I just add more and more detail until I’m ready to write. Notice that the story starts when the normal state of things is disturbed, and ends when the normal state is restored.
The next step is to fill in a slightly more complex diagram:
Now what? What now? Problem presented==èmuch bigger problem appears --à high speed finish=è hero saves the day.
The “problem presented” section is about a quarter of the book. It only looks like our hero has a big problem until the second bit. This is what I call the “now what?” point, at which our protagonist is temporarily at a loss for what to do next. (Goldfinger’s not just smuggling – he plans to rob Fort Knox.) That second bit is around half the book. At the end of that point it what I call the “what now?” point, or better yet, the “we’re doomed!” point, when all appears lost. (The Death Star is moving in and powering up!) Then the hero figures out the solution and it’s a race to the finish. If you watch Hollywood movies with a stopwatch you’ll see they almost always use this three-act framework. For our familiar example it would look like this: Hansel & Gretel are lost=è h & g are captured by a witch ===è h & g escape & kill witch =è h & g get home.
Once I get this far I start looking for the secondary plot. Why? Well, that’s the topic for next week.
My plots usually start with a “what if” idea. For example, the big idea for Blood and Bone came from a news story I was working on about a bone marrow donation program. I thought, “what if” someone needed a transplant and the only possible donor was missing? My detective Hannibal would have to find the missing person.
So I have an idea of where the plot starts. Hannibal needs to find a missing person. And I know where it ends. Hannibal will find the missing person in time and save the day.
Now you may not have noticed, but I just gave you the outline of a story.
Hannibal is asked to find a missing person =è Hannibal finds him and saves the day.
If I was writing something simpler, say, a fairy tale, the outline might be:
Hansel and Gretel get lost=èHansel and Gretel get home.
This is the basic outline and from here I just add more and more detail until I’m ready to write. Notice that the story starts when the normal state of things is disturbed, and ends when the normal state is restored.
The next step is to fill in a slightly more complex diagram:
Now what? What now? Problem presented==èmuch bigger problem appears --à high speed finish=è hero saves the day.
The “problem presented” section is about a quarter of the book. It only looks like our hero has a big problem until the second bit. This is what I call the “now what?” point, at which our protagonist is temporarily at a loss for what to do next. (Goldfinger’s not just smuggling – he plans to rob Fort Knox.) That second bit is around half the book. At the end of that point it what I call the “what now?” point, or better yet, the “we’re doomed!” point, when all appears lost. (The Death Star is moving in and powering up!) Then the hero figures out the solution and it’s a race to the finish. If you watch Hollywood movies with a stopwatch you’ll see they almost always use this three-act framework. For our familiar example it would look like this: Hansel & Gretel are lost=è h & g are captured by a witch ===è h & g escape & kill witch =è h & g get home.
Once I get this far I start looking for the secondary plot. Why? Well, that’s the topic for next week.
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